


The Duck Network

by Kryptaria



Series: Feathers 'verse [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: M/M, demon!John
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-28
Updated: 2012-11-28
Packaged: 2017-11-19 17:36:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/575863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kryptaria/pseuds/Kryptaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It was a job for Mycroft, of all things, and Sherlock had no idea how he would, in the end, explain his knowledge. Finally he left it down to mystery. Mycroft was clever; he’d come up with his own explanation for Sherlock’s impossible brilliance.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Duck Network

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mitaya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mitaya/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Утиная сеть](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5089385) by [Hedwig221b](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedwig221b/pseuds/Hedwig221b)



It was a job for Mycroft, of all things, and Sherlock had no idea how he would, in the end, explain his knowledge. Finally he left it down to mystery. Mycroft was clever; he’d come up with his own explanation for Sherlock’s impossible brilliance.

It shouldn’t have even been a job. The Americans were (according to John, who occasionally paid attention to such things) England’s allies. But there it was - a British military officer passing classified data to an American.

At a park.

Witnessed by ducks.

 

Ducks, Sherlock had learned, couldn’t quite tell one human from another. They knew Sherlock by the feather in his spine and they knew John because, well, he was  _John_. Everyone else, though, was marked by characteristics that Sherlock had never considered.

And as it turned out, the British official often took his young granddaughter to the park to feed the ducks. So when he turned up, the lingering smell of old sourdough clinging in crumbs to the insides of his pockets, the ducks naturally grew expectant.

When the American showed up, rather than the bread-offering granddaughter, the ducks grew irritated.

Ducks are terrible gossips. By the third meeting of Anglo allies-turned-spies, the ducks at this particular park had bitched to ducks throughout half of London.

From there, it was almost easy. It would have been, had John not been away for a medical certification test or something tedious like that.

Sherlock couldn’t speak Duck. Therefore, it took three hours of one of his juvenile ducks nibbling at the cuff of his trousers with shocking imprecision to steer him through alleys and rooftops - not the sidewalks, of course, because one CCTV image of a duck herding Sherlock would have sent Mycroft into fits.

Sherlock wondered if he could convince John to sic the ducks on Mycroft.

But that was neither here nor there. In the end, his spy (Blackbeard, Sherlock had named this one) led him to the spies in question. One foot-chase, one wrestling match, and one awkward PCSO arrest later, and the spies were caught. It was too late for some of the data, but at least Mycroft got off Sherlock’s back for a while.

When John finally came back from his seminar and certification, he asked, “How was your week?”

“Boring,” Sherlock answered, not pausing until John was out of his layers of shirts. “Wings,” he prompted.

And John let his wings spread, encouraging Sherlock to forget, for a little while, all about spies and ducks and his boring brother.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] The Duck Network](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8425528) by [nutmeag83](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nutmeag83/pseuds/nutmeag83)




End file.
